You are Not the Average Computer User

John Lilly, the CEO of Mozilla, recently blogged about Apple's practice of including a new installation of Safari in Apple's Software Update service, even if you didn't have the application installed in the first place. You can read the full article here. His main point was this: As a matter of trust, update software should update previously installed applications, and not install new applications. Apple pretty much violated that trust when it presented users with this handy little dialog box:

The main issue here is that Safari is not already installed on the end-user's machine. So, the option is not an update, but a fresh download of brand new software. Further, the option is checked by default, and the button in the lower right hand corner clearly says "Install 2 items".

Now, I'm not going to rehash the pros and cons of Apple's tactics in this matter, because that argument has been debated endlessly on John's blog and on Reddit. What I am going to take issue with is the arrogant presumption that many commenters take when they make these sorts of statements:

"I don’t see what the problem is here. If you don’t want the software, you uncheck the box. The product description is listed very clearly in the window, no extra clicking required."

Omar

"I don’t see the big deal. They are promoting their software through their software update program. It’s automatically checked…ok, so? Lots of update programs automatically check everything anyway, not just apple.

"If FF is better then people will use FF. If they like safari then they will switch. These browser “loyalty” wars are getting old. IE came with windows by default and FF is still gaining ground. It is gaining ground because it is better. Just keep making a better browser and stop worrying about this. ppl will flock to the best. We’re not stupid."

Chris

"Oh fer heaven’s sake, uncheck the box and get over it. Are you saying the majority of Windows users of iTunes are too clueless to look and see what they’re downloading? OK, I’ll admit it’s a bit pushy of Apple but beyond that I fail to see what all the fuss is about."

Anne

These are knee-jerk responses. The last one, in particular, is an exemplary case of a poster who clearly doesn't understand the idea that users who read or post to tech blogs or forums are not typical computer users. If you're reading this blog, you're not a typical computer user. (I'm not sure what you are, exactly, but you're not typical.)

Apple's case is interesting because of the enormous success of the iPod, and the vast number of iPod owners who use Windows. Those users will download iTunes so that they can use their iPod with their computer to purchase music and manage their playlists. However, the vast majority of those people are not what we would classify as tech savvy users. Rather, I'd call them click-through users, who implicitly trust the software vendor to make decisions for them. Think about your mom, your dad, your sister, your brother, your aunt, your uncle, the kids at school, the clerks at the nearest retail outlet or fast food joint, your fellow students, or your nontechnical coworkers.

Those people represent the average computer user. They are click-through users.

A couple times a year, I get calls from my family members about their computers. Inevitably, they'll tell me that the computer is suddenly horrifically slow, and that they need me to fix it. So they bring it to me, and I look at it, and it has tons of mystery software on it. I like to have them sit with me when I'm going through it, so that I don't remove anything that they might actually need or use. Nine times out of ten, they'll tell me, "I don't know where that came from." Apple's software update for Safari is likely going to produce an awful lot of these scenarios, because the the average computer user will have just clicked through the dialog, trusting that Apple knew what was best for them.

A tech savvy user isn't likely to just click through that dialog box because they know what can happen, and they're pretty darned picky about what goes on their machine. They don't blindly trust the vendor to make those decisions for them. But the number of users like that is relatively small, and is hardly representative of the world's population.

But the world is full of click-through users. There are far more of them than there are of us. Thinking for one minute that everyone thinks and/or behaves as we do is naive, shortsighted, arrogant and presumptuous.

Again, my point here isn't that Apple was right or wrong. My point is this: never assume for one minute that YOU represent the average computer user. You don't.

• If you're smart enough to competently read or post an a technical blog or forum, you're not an average computer user.
• If you know how to correctly fix someone else's machine after they've borked it, you're not an average computer user.
• If you know the difference between a hash table, a binary tree, and a linked list, you are not an average computer user.
• If you know what recursion is, you are not an average computer user.
• If you know how to safely overclock your machine, you're not an average computer user.
• If you read technical books like they're gripping, fast-paced murder mysteries, you're not an average computer user.

This list is undoubtedly incomplete, but I haven't had enough coffee yet. But you get the point.

So, enough with this arrogant presumption. Stop assuming that all users behave as we do. Because the simple truth is that the vast majority of users do not behave or think as we do. They trust; we suspect.